Reviews and Comments

I loved the first one - this one only slightly disappointed but was still a great read. Ana and Din are great characters, and there's some good development and interactions between them here.

Introduced a potential (and relatively inevitable) Moriarty type character which escalated the stakes. The worldbuilding continues to be stellar - just the right mix of fantasy anchored in familiar concepts.

The mystery of this book was a little disappointing, but it was made up for by the series level plot advancements.

It felt smaller scale and more contained than the first book, and I kept waiting for it to kick up a gear and unfortunately it didn't, really. Still - great - and I look forward to the next.

Kinda interesting approach to a set of tools to deal with particular challenges. The idea being you use this book more as a reference and reinforcement exercise than a life altering read.

No real complaints about the book but also no real praise. YMMV.

Introduced to Ken Liu through his translation of the Three Body Problem

Some great stories, some less so. Thematically centered on writing and passing on of thought.

I really enjoyed State Change where your soul is a physical object - imagine His Dark Materials but inanimate objects not animals.

The man who ended history was interesting, but was just too long and repetitive. Not to take anything away from the brutality of history where unit 731 is concerned of course.

I don't think this really worked as an audiobook, I wish I'd picked up a paper copy.

I've somehow never really read any cyberpunk type sci-fi. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this.

Mindblowing also was how much of an influence this book has been on the genre, and how many of the concepts were so ahead of Gibson's time.

The story was relatively basic, but given everything else I don't think you can complain. I'd love to have read this when I was younger before so many of the tropes in the book were plastered everywhere.

I think I'll try some other classic sci-fis that are often mentioned in the same breath as Neuromancer soon.

This was interesting. It would be nice if more people of different walks of life left their condensed wisdom towards the end.

Jarring to see the progressive views on race with the regressive views on women.

I really enjoyed this. I especially enjoyed the Minch featuring quite heavily. Part of me likes to imagine some ancient lineage to that area - that's my delusion and I'm sticking to it.

Didn't expect the trip to Palestine or Tibet but they were well done. An expertly written book with some amazing passages that were almost poetic.

The book focuses on walking, the land, and the history both of those things connect you to. Parts of it reminded me of Tolkien's writing style.

This feels like a wintery book to be read in low light, not in summer with sunlight streaming through the window.

"For him, as for so many other people, the mind was a landscape of a kind and walking a means of crossing it."

A well written book that I enjoyed. A focus on life being a series of tidal ebbs and flows, waxes and wanes rather than a linear GETTING BETTER or GETTING WORSE.

I had the same kind of issue I have with Matt Haig’s books where the answers and “solutions” just don’t translate well, or I can’t empathise with the situation.

Some of the book centres around mindfulness and the power of acknowledging and addressing the moment and your needs.

I don’t really agree with some of the criticism the author is getting - all situations are relative and as much as I can’t empathise with the situations here, that doesn’t devalue them. It felt to me as if the book was intentionally internal and inward looking, rather than it being a statement on her character.

This is the second book read for our software book club.

A decent read that started with the basics and included useful diagrams and exercises to complete. I would recommend this to anyone working in software as you'll either use or already use (possibly without realising) many of these techniques.

I don't tend to read many "practical" books - preferring to use them as reference material, but this series looks like it is on that line of being readable for readings sake.

One of my favouite sections was actually the "what's next" bit at the end.

Really enjoyed this. If you're a fan of urban type horror or unknowable cosmic threads give this a go. If you've played Alan Wake or Control, you might appreciate this too.

I enjoyed the fragmented / short story style and much preferred reading them collated here in a book rather than on the SCP wiki.

Some cool tech - I especially enjoyed the concept of a drug that temporarily reverses old age (and therefore memory loss) at the cost of a whiplash effect when it wears off.

Imagining ideas that are so alien or transdimensional that our brains literally cannot handle them is very compelling. I got turned around throughout these stories that I wasn't entirely sure what happened in what order but I love the idea of humans fighting a war they can't even remember.

Interesting, and readable. Felt quite dumbed down and repetitive.

While there's no rule saying things can't be simple, this felt like an incredibly binary take on an aspect of an incredibly complex system.

I enjoyed some of the stories about dopamine, and the reward prediction error stuff was really interesting (and something that I'm noticing now it has been pointed out)

Overall it just felt a bit dated in approach, and almost like astrology in some of the conclusions.

NEWWWW ACHIEVEMENT: You're up to date. REWARRRDDDD: Reading this is your reward. You don't get more rewards.

This was amazing. This series just keeps getting better. I don't think I've read many books that have such a diverse yet distinctive cast of characters that you actually care about.

Dark and grim themes mixed with levity and coarse but never (ok sometimes) crude humour are a winning combination.

I feel like the soundbooth audiobook is basically cheating though, it's leagues above anything else I've listened to.

The stakes are absolutely insane. Carl and Donut continue to grow and we find out more about the real world outside the dungeon.

I do not know how I will wait until the next one. I'm a bit worried these have ruined audiobooks for me. I think a series reread is due soon to try and catch things I've missed.